Influence of external supervisors' practices on teachers' attitudes towards instructional supervision in Kiambu Municipality primary schools, Kenya

Abstract

The study sough to investigate how the external supervisors' practices influence teachers' attitudes towards instructional supervision in Kiambu Municipality. The study focused on four objectives: to determine the extent to which quality assurance and standards officers' collaborative supervision influences teachers' attitudes towards instructional supervision, to examine the influence of quality assurance and standard officers mentoring practices on teachers attitude towards instructional supervision, to determine fault findings practices by quality assurance and standards officers on teachers' attitudes towards instructional supervision and to establish the extent to which victimization by quality assurance and standard of officers influences teachers attitude towards instructional supervision. The finding of this study may significantly benefit teachers training colleges, QASO and ministry of education personals involved in decision making and formulating policies on supervision The study was conducted using descriptive survey research. The population in this study was 64 teachers and 12 head teachers in public schools in Kiambu municipality. Stratified random sampling was used to select teachers to take part in the study. The study used two sets of questionnaires to collect the data from both the head teacher and teachers. The supervisor provided the expertise to determine the validity of the study and the reliability was determined by using split half technique which was 0.88 The findings showed that Quality assurance and standard officers' collaborative supervision affect teachers' attitude towards instructional supervision positively because they plan in advance on the date to carry out supervision. Mentoring supervision influence teachers attitude positively because QASOs guide teachers on bow to transmits positive reinforcement with the aim of encouraging people to excel and helping teachers with skills on how to effective classroom managers. However, fault finding and victimization practices influences teachers attitude negatively because teachers feel harassed when they are found unprepared and this makes the teacher to dislike the instructional supervision exercise. The finding of the study recommend prior arrangement of visits before visiting schools, objective intervention during the instructional supervision, objectivity of reports and educating both teachers and the instructional officers on their roles in the supervision process. QASOs should also be trained on the instructional supervision activity, the procedure, interpersonal relations with teachers, report writing among other critical aspects of the process.